Tag: North Korea

Lil Kim Goes After Bitcoin

North Korea has been notorious for their hacking for years now….and now those hackers are going after the fortunes of Bitcoin investors….

North Korean hackers have ramped up efforts to steal cryptocurrency, with losses attributed to them reaching more than $2 billion so far this year—a record haul, according to researchers at Elliptic. These thefts account for roughly 13% of the country’s estimated GDP, per United Nations figures. While North Korean hacking groups such as the Lazarus Group have long targeted crypto companies, investigators now say there’s a growing shift toward wealthy individual holders, who often lack the robust security systems used by businesses, reports the BBC.

Elliptic’s chief scientist, Tom Robinson, points out that attacks on individuals are less likely to be reported, suggesting the true scale of North Korea’s crypto theft may be even higher. “We are aware of many other thefts that share some of the hallmarks of North Korea-linked activity but lack sufficient evidence to be definitively attributed,” he notes.

Western security agencies believe the regime uses these illicit funds to support its nuclear and missile programs. The largest known single incident this year occurred in February, when hackers reportedly siphoned $1.4 billion from the Bybit exchange. Other notable attacks include $14 million taken from WOO X users, $1.27 million from LND.fi, and $1.2 million from Seedify, per NK News. Elliptic says its analysts have tied more than 30 attacks to North Korea this year, with the largest theft from an individual coming in at $100 million.

The cumulative value of crypto assets stolen by North Korea now exceeds $6 billion. The regime has denied involvement in hacking, but researchers continue to trace stolen funds via blockchain transactions. Meanwhile, North Korea is also suspected of operating fake IT worker schemes to generate additional revenue and circumvent international sanctions, per the BBC.

What happened to all that cyber-security measures?

I realize I do not know much about all this crypto craze but it seems there is a safer place to put ones money….but that is just me.

Would greed dictate money to be put into crypto?

(Please do not try to explain Crypto to me….I am old and not really interested)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Failed Mission–2019

This is a mission from 6 years….a mission that did not go off as planned…..

That mission was to the shores of North Korea…..

The New York Times is for the first time revealing a secret mission by Navy SEALs in North Korea that unraveled in dramatic fashion back in 2019. It reads like an espionage thriller, though one with fatal consequences for up to three North Korea fishermen. Under a top-secret plan approved by President Trump, SEAL Team 6’s Red Squadron—the same unit famous for killing Osama bin Laden—used mini submarines to reach the North Korean shore at nighttime in early winter. Their mission was to sneak ashore and plant a newly developed listening device to pick up on Kim Jong Un’s communications. Some of the SEALs had made it to shore when the trouble came:

  • “A North Korean boat appeared out of the dark. Flashlights from the bow swept over the water. Fearing that they had been spotted, the SEALs opened fire. Within seconds, everyone on the North Korean boat was dead.”

In the aftermath, the SEALs discovered that those on the boat appeared to be civilians diving for shellfish—they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The divers apparently heard the subs and began to investigate, with one of them actually jumping in the water. The story explains that the SEALs were incommunicado and had to make a split-second decision on what to do. After killing the divers, they aborted the mission to plant the device, returned to their larger submarine, and headed to open sea. The story alleges that the Trump administration did not brief members of Congress before or after the mission, adding that the “lack of notification may have violated the law.”

Read the full story.

It is interesting that this ‘mission was met with utter silence….I recall a failed mission back in 1979 when Carter sent special ops into Iran to free the hostages…..this one met with failure and the GOP never let him live that failure down.

This one is too hush-hush for it to be held against Donny and the idiots.

So that means that the US does not trust South Korea on the intel they provide on NK….

I am sure there is more to this story than we have right now…..I will be watching….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

3 From The East

A couple of nations from the diabolical East will meet and compare notes….China, Russia, North Korea…..should we be worried?

Chinese President Xi Jinping is making a bold diplomatic play as he prepares to host both Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un for a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender, which ended its occupation of regions of China. It’s the first time the three leaders will gather together. The Sept. 3 gathering in Beijing, to bring together leaders from 26 countries in all, including Indonesia, Iran, Cuba, Pakistan, and Malaysia, serves as a high-profile showcase of China’s expanding influence on the world stage, per the BBC and NPR. While President Trump continues to struggle for a diplomacy breakthrough in Ukraine and seeks another meeting with Kim, Xi is demonstrating his ability to convene key players.

Kim’s presence is especially notable, marking the first time a North Korean leader has attended a Chinese military parade since 1959. Despite speculation that Kim’s growing alignment with Putin might have frayed ties with Beijing, his first visit to the country in six years signals otherwise. The visit also offers Kim “legitimacy,” per the BBC, as he shares a stage with other world leaders. Xi, meanwhile, stands to gain leverage in upcoming negotiations with Washington. Trump, who’s under pressure to resolve trade tensions and will be in the region at the end of October, has said he’s open to meeting Xi. As the BBC reports, “Xi will want the strongest hand possible as negotiations go on” and, following this visit, “he may even have information his US counterpart does not.”

Is this a strategy session on dealing with the US?

Are we looking at a new bloc to counter US adventurism?

Will this be more troubles in the Pacific?

Will this be money thrown at a ‘rising’ threat?

Should we be worried?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Planning Your Next Vacay

Finally for this week…..that dream vacation…..

It’s Summer and thoughts of the perfect vacation pop into mind….soon there will be a new destination for all those thrill seekers.

There are people out there that feel they must do the ultimate trip for their next vacation….some feel it must be unique and exotic…..well I have an idea for them….

North Korea is rolling out a new beach resort on its east coast, hoping to draw tourists—and much-needed revenue—into one of the world’s most secretive nations. Leader Kim Jong Un hailed the Wonsan Kalma resort as one of the country’s “greatest feats” of the year, though it comes six years after its planned competition. It was initially expected to open in October 2019 before construction delays and the coronavirus pandemic wrecked plans, per the BBC. Kim, who grew up in the town favored by the country’s elite, attended an event to celebrate the resort’s completion on Tuesday, alongside his wife, daughter, and Russian ambassador Alexander Matsegora.

The area will “play a leading role in establishing the tourist culture” of North Korea, Kim said, per the Guardian. State media report the resort on a 2.5-mile stretch of beach with hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, and a water park, can accommodate up to 20,000 visitors. It opens to domestic tourists July 1. Some tour operators believe it will later accept Russian tourists—”currently the only foreign nationals allowed into some parts of the country,” per the BBC. The two countries have been tightening partnerships and, on Thursday, reopened a direct passenger train route between Pyongyang and Moscow after a five-year closure related to the coronavirus pandemic.

There you go….if you want unique and exotic then North Korea is the place for you.

How serious is this?

Will there be a Trump Tower coming soon?

Will people consider the past history of those ‘visiting’ this location?

Personally I will stay close to home….there is nothing in North Korea that I am dying (pun intended) to see…..but as my grandfather use to say….”if you feel froggy then jump”.

But if you decide to stretch your luck and it ends badly then tough sh*t…..what were you thinking?

As the weekend begins enjoy your Summer and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Vacation Of A Lifetime

There are many places that could claim that bold assertion…..places like Paris, London, Ibiza, Greece, etc but now we can add one more destination to that list….the country of….(what for it)….North Korea.

It’s not like North Korea tops any “top vacation destinations” lists, but tour companies on Wednesday were still excitedly touting the latest news out of the secluded nation: After nearly five years of even further isolation brought by COVID, the North will open its borders again to foreign tourists. “We have received confirmation from our local partner that tourism to Samjiyon and likely the rest of the country will officially resume in December 2024,” Koryo Tours, based in Beijing, announced on its website, per Reuters.

Another company, KTG Tours, made a similar announcement about Samjiyon—a mountainous town known for its winter activities, and where the country says a “socialist utopia” is being built—on its own site. Per the BBC, that agency wrote on its Facebook page that “we think that Pyongyang and other places will open too!!!”

NK News notes that most of the North’s prepandemic tourists came out of China, though visitors also included “several thousand Westerners” annually. The nation shut its borders once COVID hit, and it only recently started allowing Russian tourists in earlier this year, thanks to warming relations between Pyongyang and Moscow. Chad O’Carroll, who heads up the US-based analysis firm Korea Risk Group, is wary of the news. “I will believe it when I see it,” he tells the BBC. “For now, I am quite skeptical we will see any real movement in December.”

Seriously?

Well when Donald the Orange was visiting he talked about condos on a beach there….maybe that enticed Li’l Kim to consider opening up for some tourist dollars.

But before you dash off to sign up consider this….as an American what are your chances of being arrested for spying?

Would you chance your freedom and possible torture and death to visit this little nation?

I will pass….I will read about it in the funny papers.

Choose wisely for your next vacay.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Kim-Putin Deal

Here is something that was not reported.

I was wondering when this region would once again grab the attention of the media.

Recently Vlad the Invader visited North Korea…..and after a bit of PR work the two leaders signed a mutual defense pact.

Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un made a big deal of their newly cemented partnership on Wednesday, with the Russian leader calling it a “breakthrough” and his North Korean counterpart labeling it a “most powerful agreement.” But what exactly does it say? Neither side has released the text, and the details in this case are seen as crucial. Coverage:

  • Putin’s words: “The comprehensive partnership agreement signed today provides, among other things, for mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement,” said Putin, per Reuters. The Russian leader is visiting North Korea for the first time in two decades.
  • Unclear: Does that mean Russia would unleash a “full-fledged military intervention” if North Korea is attacked, and vice versa? That’s not clear, reports the New York Times. The newspaper notes that the two nations had a Cold War-era aggression pact of this nature, but it has been defunct since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
  • Hard to assess: At the BBC, Paul Adams writes that it will be difficult to gauge just how groundbreaking this is until the formal text is released. Putin made a point to say the pact “did not exclude the development of military-technical cooperation with North Korea.” But exactly what the aforementioned “mutual assistance” might entail is the big unknown. “Perhaps the two leaders will prefer for that to remain ominously ambiguous.”
  • Potential impact: “Depending on the exact wording of the pact … it could be a dramatic shift in the entire strategic situation in Northeast Asia,” per Reuters, quoting Artyom Lukin of Russia’s Far Eastern Federal University. A big question is what China, which has heretofore been North Korea’s biggest benefactor, will think of all this. So far, Beijing has not weighed in.
  • On the other hand: The two nations already have been assisting each other militarily, notes the Wall Street Journal, with Russia in dire need of North Korea’s ample stock of conventional weaponry. For now, “there is nothing fundamentally new about this relationship today that was not true before Putin’s visit,” says Patrick M. Cronin, the Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute. That would change only if the pact spells out a military commitment to retaliate on each other’s behalf. Still, the fast-growing partnership has ramifications on everything from the West’s ability to limit North Korea’s nuclear ambitions to the war in Ukraine, which could be prolonged as Putin beefs up his arsenal.

Then after this the news is that China is all butt hurt over the visit and the pact….

China was already worried that whatever control it has over North Korea was weakened when Pyongyang reportedly supplied almost 7,000 containers worth of weapons to Moscow. And this is why, in April, the Middle Kingdom sent its third most senior leader within the Chinese Communist party hierarchy, Zhao Leji, to assure the North Korean strongman that Beijing was still a strong ally.

Now the defensive pact that draws Moscow and Pyongyang closer threatens to further diminish China’s influence over Kim. The Kremlin knows that one of Beijing’s greatest fears is that a renegade North Korea may one day point its weapons at China.

And this is a key reason behind Putin’s peace treaty with Pyongyang.

https://theconversation.com/kim-putin-deal-why-this-is-a-coded-message-aimed-at-china-and-how-it-worries-beijing-232863

The US is also concerned with this meeting and the document signed….so much so that it dispatched a carrier group to the South China Sea….

A nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier arrived Saturday in South Korea for a three-way exercise involving Japan for stepped-up military training to cope with North Korean threats, which have escalated following the announcement of a security pact with Russia. The arrival of the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group in Busan came a day after South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The exercise that is expected to start this month, the AP reports.

Not to worry the War Department is on the job.

Everybody is flexing their muscles and no one is paying attention to the consequences of their actions.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is North Korea Preparing For War?

Everybody had lots to say about the Ukraine/Russia thing and now they have a new war to thumping their anemic chests over……but while they were rant and raving and insulting anybody that disagrees with them Trump’s old buddy Kim is looking for a fight.

Two of America’s most prominent North Korea experts, Robert Carlin and Siegfried Hecker, begin their latest analysis with this sentence: “The situation on the Korean Peninsula is more dangerous than it has been at any time since early June 1950.”

They believe Kim Jong Un has decided to “go to war.” Unlike past years, recent belligerent North Korean statements don’t appear to be bluster. If these experts are right, the longstanding US-South Korean strategy of nuclear deterrence is failing.

In their view, Kim has abandoned North Korea’s long-sought effort to normalize relations with the US. He is now willing to challenge the US-Republic of Korea strategy that relies on Kim’s rationality—his understanding that war would mean the total destruction of his regime and his country.

Why now? What accounts for this extraordinary shift in N Korean thinking?

Carlin and Hecker contend that it entails, first, the North Korean belief that “the global tides were running in its favor,” due to the US being bogged down in Ukraine and the Middle East; second, that unification with South Korea is impossible, and that North and South Korea are now belligerent nations; third, that N Korea can rely on Russia for support.

Are these experts right? A surprise attack on S Korea would seem like madness. But Kim Jong Un’s strategic calculation may be that with the US weighted down by military commitments elsewhere, and North Korea now possessing the capability to reach the mainland US with a nuclear weapon, his country can deter a US nuclear response to a North Korean attack.

In doing so, he not only risks the end of his regime but also a regional war that would involve China and Japan. The possible destruction in such a war is unimaginable.

Is North Korea Preparing for War?

Is this a possibility?

Some in the rat race of DC thinks it will happen.

US officials now believe that North Korea will conduct a lethal attack against South Korea, according to the New York Times. Washington assesses that Pyongyang will attempt to limit its attack to avoid a full-scale war. 

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un could take lethal military action against South Korea in the coming months, American officials told the Times. “The officials have assessed that Kim’s recent harder line is part of a pattern of provocations, but that his declarations have been more aggressive than previous statements and should be taken seriously.” The article continues, “While the officials added that they did not see an imminent risk of a full-scale war on the Korean Peninsula, Kim could carry out strikes in a way that he thinks would avoid rapid escalation.”

While you were off counting the number of people on the Southern border Kim is silently making his plans for a quick and decisive strike South.

But that is not important right now….we have lots to say about the border….if we snooze, we lose.

I am sure that there will be plenty of whining and ranting once he makes his final decision….at least you guys will know it was coming.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Run For The Border

Let us take a break from one stupidity and move on to another….

I have waited a few days to see just how the blogs would handle this event…..few even noticed according to the chatter on-line.

The event I am writing about is the US soldier who ‘jumped’ the fence and escaped into North Korea…..

This is how the tale is trending…..

American officials have confirmed that a US soldier crossed into North Korea Tuesday “willfully and without authorization.” Officials did not release the soldier’s name at a briefing Tuesday afternoon, but outlets including CBS identified the man as Private 2nd Class Travis King. The AP, citing US officials, reports that King had just been released from a South Korean prison where he had been held on assault charges. The officials said King was due to face further disciplinary action in the US and had been taken to an airport by military personnel. But he managed to avoid getting on the plane and joined a tour group that went to the border village of Panmunjom in the Joint Security Area between North and South Korea.

The soldier passed through airport security before somehow leaving the airport and joining the tour group, officials said. A witness who was part of the same tour group tells CBS that the man gave out “a loud ‘ha ha ha'” before running between some buildings. “I thought it was a bad joke at first, but when he didn’t come back, I realized it wasn’t a joke, and then everybody reacted and things got crazy,” the witness says. The witness says there were no North Korean soldiers visible where the man ran. Members of the tour group were required to provide identification before they boarded their bus in Seoul, the witness says.

Col. Isaac Taylor, a public affairs officer for US Forces Korea, said authorities believe the soldier is in North Korean custody, the New York Times reports. Asked at Tuesday’s briefing whether the soldier had defected to North Korea, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “All I will say … is that it’s clear that he willfully, of his own volition, crossed the border,” the BBC reports. Asked whether the soldier was being forcibly detained by North Korean authorities, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Pentagon is closely monitoring the situation and he is “absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troop.”

As I was writing this more info has been released….

More details are slowly emerging about Private 2nd Class Travis King, the US soldier who crossed into North Korea on Tuesday—but his current whereabouts aren’t one of them. North Korean state media has yet to say anything about the 23-year-old, the first American known to be detained in North Korea in almost five years. The latest:

  • King, a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division, had on July 10 finished a nearly two-month stint in a South Korean prison for assault, the AP reports. He was en route to Fort Bliss, Texas, to possibly face further military discipline and discharge when he somehow left the Incheon International Airport outside Seoul. King later joined a Panmunjom tour and dashed across the border.
  • The Korea Times sheds light on that “somehow.” It reports military police from Camp Humphreys escorted King to Incheon but were not permitted to go through security and to the gate with him. Once at the gate, King “approached an American Airlines official and reported that his passport was missing, and was able to return out of the departure gate under the escort of an airline employee,” an airport official said.
  • King had run-ins with the law in South Korea prior to serving time. Reuters reports he was accused of punching a man at a Seoul nightclub in September; the charge was dropped because the alleged victim didn’t want to pursue a case against King, reports the AP.
  • On Oct. 8, police responded to the report of an alleged assault. King reportedly refused to cooperate with police or answer their questions. He was put in a police car where, according to court documents, he yelled obscenities about Koreans and the Korean army and police and damaged the car’s door by kicking it. He was fined 5 million won (about $4,000) in February in that case.
  • The White House—which has no diplomatic relations with the North—on Tuesday said the US is “engaging” with South Korea and Sweden regarding King. The AP points out that while Sweden has acted as an intermediary in the past thanks in part to its embassy in Pyongyang, its diplomatic staff were forced out of the country at the start of the pandemic and reportedly haven’t returned.
  • As for the tour King joined, NBC News reports Panmunjom is located about 90 minutes from the airport and is the sole place along the roughly 155-mile Demilitarized Zone where the North and South “interact.”
  • New Zealander Sarah Leslie and her father were part of the tour group. She tells the AP that she initially believed she was watching a prank when she saw King sprinting toward North Korea “really fast. I assumed initially he had a mate filming him in some kind of really stupid prank or stunt, like a TikTok, the most stupid thing you could do. But then I heard one of the soldiers shout, ‘Get that guy.'”
  • As for King’s possible fate, Tae Yongho, a South Korean lawmaker and former minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, tells the AP he has a hard time envisioning the North returning King to the US because he is a soldier and the two countries technically remain at war. That’s because “the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty,” the AP explains.

Now my question is why would anyone choose a NK prison to a military stockade?

Best and brightest my ass.

I am sure that there will be more on this incident to come….but how will this be painted?

Your thoughts….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Kim Has A New Toy

Lil Kim has his share of toys, war toys, from rockets, missiles, nukes and now a eye in the sky.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un examined a finished military spy satellite, which his country is expected to launch soon, during a visit to his country’s aerospace agency, where he described space-based reconnaissance as crucial for countering the US and South Korea. As the AP reports, Kim during Tuesday’s visit approved an unspecified “future action plan” in preparations for launching the satellite, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. North Korea hasn’t disclosed a target date for the launch, which some analysts say may be in the next few weeks. That launch would use long-range missile technology banned by past UN Security Council resolutions, although previous missile and rocket tests have demonstrated North Korea’s ability to deliver a satellite into space.

There are more questions, however, about the satellite’s capability. Some South Korean analysts say the satellite shown in North Korean state media photos appears too small and crudely designed to support high-resolution imagery. Photos that North Korean media released from past missile launches were low resolution. Photos released by the Rodong Sinmun newspaper of Tuesday’s visit showed Kim and his daughter—dressed in white lab coats—talking with scientists near an object that looked like the main component of a satellite. The newspaper didn’t identify the object, which was surrounded by a perimeter of red tape. The visit was Kim’s first public appearance in about a month, following a previous visit to the aerospace center on April 18.

Kim said acquiring a spy satellite would be crucial for his efforts to bolster the country’s defense as “US imperialists and [South] Korean puppet villains escalate their confrontational moves” against the North, the KCNA said. He was apparently referring to the expansion of joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea and the allies’ discussions on strengthening their nuclear deterrence strategies to cope with threats from North Korea, which has test-fired around 100 missiles since the start of 2022. The next step in North Korea’s launch preparations, or the “future action plan” state media mentioned, could be installing the satellite on what would likely be a three-stage space rocket, said Kim Dong-yub, a professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies.

The launch could be conducted as early as mid-June, although Pyongyang might also time the event to major state anniversaries that fall in July, September, or October, the professor said. Spy satellites are among a slew of advanced weapons systems Kim Jong Un has vowed to develop. Others on his wish list include solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-powered submarines, hypersonic missiles, and multiwarhead missiles. North Korea has tested some of those weapons in recent months, including its first test flight of a solid-fuel ICBM last month, but experts say the North may need more time and technological breakthroughs to make those systems functional. In response to North Korea’s military spy satellite, Japan’s military last month ordered troops to activate missile interceptors and get ready to shoot down fragments from the satellite that may fall on the Japanese territory.

Kim keeps expanding his capabilities and eventually the US will have to come to terms with that….but right now China is the mind filling stuff the Pentagon has to deal with….for now.

How far will this go?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

North Korea Expands Scope

While the world is paranoid over China and Russia North Korea keeps expanding its capabilities…..nukes, long-range missiles and now its own spy satellite…..

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country has completed the development of its first military spy satellite and ordered officials to go ahead with its launch as planned, state media reported Wednesday. During his visit to the North’s aerospace agency Tuesday, Kim stressed it’s crucial to acquire a space-based surveillance system to cope with what he called serious security threats posed by “the most hostile rhetoric and explicit action” by the United States and South Korea this year, the Korean Central News Agency said. North Korea has said its ongoing torrid run of weapons tests, including its first test-launch of a solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the US mainland last week, are a response to joint military exercises between the United States and its regional allies South Korea and Japan, the AP reports.

At the National Aerospace Development Administration, Kim said military reconnaissance was essential for North Korea to effectively use its methods of war deterrence, according to KCNA. Kim said “the military reconnaissance satellite No. 1” had been built as of April and ordered efforts to speed up final preparations for its launch at a planned date that he didn’t disclose. He said North Korea must launch several satellites to firmly establish an intelligence-gathering capability, KCNA said. Kim also accused the US and South Korea of expanding their hostile military campaigns in the name of bolstering their alliance. He accused the US of transforming South Korea into “an advanced base for aggression” by deploying strategic assets like aircraft carriers and nuclear-capable bombers.

A spy satellite is among an array of high-tech weapons Kim has been developing. The others are a solid-propellant ICBM, a nuclear-power submarine, a hypersonic missile and a multi-warhead missile. North Korea has conducted tests of such weapons, but it is not clear how close they are to operational. North Korea’s previous missile and rocket tests have demonstrated the country has a capacity to send satellites into space. But many experts question whether North Korea has sophisticated cameras to use on a spy satellite, because photos it has released from previous test launches were low-resolution imagery.

Instead of worrying about China and Russia maybe more attention should be paid to the situation and the possibilities around North Korea.

Just a thought.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”